Friday, December 09, 2005

More on Limbo

In the Divine Comedy Sladin is in Limbo. This appears to suggest that Dante held you could receive the forgiveness of sins without sanctifying grace if you were some sort of 'righteous' pagan. Does anyone know of anyone else who held to this view? C.S.Lewis also seems to think adults can go to Limbo (in 'Screwtape Proposes a Toast') but in this case it is because they are too feckless for full moral responsibility. Both these positions seem difficult to reconcile with Catholic Doctrine though the latter more so. If the Dante positon could be reconciled with Catholic doctrine it would provide an easy solution for various 'extra ecclesia' arguments. Too easy perhaps. Dante himself is hardly a saintly figure nor is he entirely orthodox. Lewis seems to push a version of the anonymous Christians theory in 'The Last Battle'. Incidently, what do people think of the Narnia film? I thought it clunked rather; but more because it exposed the flaws in the book than because of any flaw in the film.